Information has been reported that the Vocational Training Authority (VTA) operating under the Ministry of Education is deviating from the procedure of the state institutions and manipulating it according to the needs of the chairman and vice-chairperson, turning the institution into a mess.
It is reported that even now, the chairman is working by sending a group of senior administrative officials including the director general on compulsory leave and giving transfers.
About three months ago, Susil Premajayantha, the Minister of Education, appointed Upali Kappetipola as the Chairman of the Vocational Training Authority and Ruwini Dharmadasa as the Vice-Chairperson. It is stated that the chairman is acting with the help of the saboteurs who are a minority who are working in the same institution.
It was said that even though the main task of the Vocational Training Authority, which is an institution that receives vocational education training, is training, it is now being implemented due to political needs.
It is stated that the chairman is implementing personal agendas outside of the corporate procedure by making false accusations against the high officials who have been working in the institution for a long time, saying that it is the restructuring of the institution.
Accordingly, about ten senior administrative officers who had provided successful and active service in the institution until then, as well as the officers who were working in the head office and district offices, have been transferred at the will of the chairman.
Upali Kappetipola, the minister’s representative, has not previously worked in a high administrative position in the government or the private sector and his knowledge regarding the tasks of the Vocational Training Authority is scant, according to its employees.
It is reported that due to lack of proper management function in the institution, the student registration this year is also not at a positive level as expected.
If the chairman is acting on his own personal and political agenda instead of checking the district performance level, it will be inevitable that the public trust in such institutions will be destroyed in the future.
Meanwhile, the board members appointed by the minister have been constantly hanging around the institution and influencing the administrative decisions. They have also influenced decision-making outside the institutional structure.
Chairpersons are appointed to government institutions with political blessings, not to allow them to run wild. Nor to make decisions outside of the organizational structure. Not for private business promotion either. In order to do so, it is not necessary to run institutions responsible for the country under a government. Protecting such places that affect the future of a country should be the responsibility of everyone who comes to them. Acting for personal or political interests without doing so is unacceptable. Although such situations are not new to this country, they cannot be condoned in any way.
Is it possible to make predictions regarding the progress of the institution when the heads of the institutions are puppets? According to reports, the current chairman of the Vocational Training Authority is working according to the orders of the minister’s son, who is the personal secretary of Minister Susil Premjayantha.
State properties are not the estates of ministers or their families and are owned by the public. They should operate in public interest. Because on the one hand, almost all those institutions are maintained by public tax money. The Vocational Training Authority is no exception. If things happen according to the wishes of the chairpersons or the political arms that lead them, it will be useless to dream about the future of such institutions. It should be remembered that this is not one institution but the future of a country.
